


The Anatomy of Us

by t_hens



Series: The Anatomy of Us [1]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Grey's Anatomy AU, Hospitals, M/M, Minor Injuries, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 00:27:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18377192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t_hens/pseuds/t_hens
Summary: Dan's just moved to London and accepted a job at one of London's best hospitals and the last thing he wants is romance - enter Dr. Phil Lesteraka the Grey's Anatomy au no one asked for





	The Anatomy of Us

**Author's Note:**

> a giant thank you to [fourthingsandawizard](http://fourthingsandawizard.tumblr.com) and [jestbee](http://jestbee.tumblr.com/) for looking this over for me!

Dan’s alarm rings out into the morning, cutting through what had been a pleasant dream and a very good night's sleep. The more conscious he becomes, the more he’s aware of the dull throb in his temples and the sour feeling swirling around in his stomach. He stops his alarm and throws his arm down, connecting with something fleshy and warm that he did not remember being there last night.

He looks over cautiously, getting a very vague recollection of going out for a glass of wine, which had turned into a vodka and tonic, and apparently ended with this stranger in his bed.

At least the stranger is cute, that’s something. All broad shoulders and shiny black hair. He can distinctly remember blue eyes, bright even in the dull light of a bedside lamp, hovering over him during what must have been excellent sex given how pleasantly sore his body feels. The faded memory sends an involuntary shiver down his back and he eases out of bed, not wanting to face the stranger before he can brush his teeth. Part of him thinks it’s really stupid to leave someone he met in a bar alone in his bedroom, but he also has to get ready for work, and the last thing he needs is to be late on his first day. 

-

The water from the shower is hot and helps shake away the lingering sleep in his mind, though it does nothing for the hangover pounding in his veins. Why did he go out for a drink when he knew he had work the next day? 

It’s still quiet when he gets out of the shower, so he creeps back into his bedroom to get dressed. The man doesn’t budge, even as Dan knocks over a half empty box and its ‘ _thud_ ’ echoes around the barren room. Once Dan’s sure he won’t wake, he grabs the rest of his things and makes his way downstairs slowly, being sure to skip the creaky step halfway down.

-

He’s got a mouth full of hurriedly made burnt toast in his mouth, scouring the counter for his keys, when he hears footsteps coming down the stairs. He pauses and watches with mild horror as the mystery man comes into view and steps into the kitchen, eyes just as bright as Dan remembered and a toothy grin that’s way too chipper for this early in the morning.

“Good morning!” he chirps at Dan, and he has to shallow the half eaten bite in his mouth so he can choke out a response.

“Morning,” he coughs around the breadcrumbs in his throat, and the man chuckles a little.

“You weren’t gonna sneak out without saying goodbye, were you?” 

He’s leaning over the counter, giving Dan a once over that could stand to be more subtle, but that still doesn’t stop a flush from coming to his cheeks.

“Uh, yeah, honestly. I have to go to work. It’s my first day and I’m gonna be late.”

“Oh, that’s right. I remember you saying you just moved to London. Did you move for the house?” He gestures around to the over the top kitchen they are standing in, which is attached to the rest of the unnecessarily grand house.

“No, it’s my mum’s house. I’m just taking care of it for a few weeks. She’s sick.” Not bothering to explain more, he finally grabs onto his keys and shoves the last bite of toast into his mouth. “Sorry, I have to go. Please lock the door when you leave, and don’t rob me.”

There is a burst of laughter behind him as he leaves the room and exits the house, but he doesn’t turn around and enjoy the sound or what was probably a really cute expression on his late night suitor’s face, just shuts the door and half jogs to the tube.

-

He’s late and has to rush to rounds, earning a dirty look from his Resident. She’s explaining how they will be divided and who will be working in which departments today.

“Howell, since you don’t seem to think that being punctual is of the utmost importance, you can work the pit today.”

Dan doesn’t whine and groan like he wants to, he just nods and moves towards emergency department, trying not to sulk. A tall girl falls into step beside him and Dan eyes her, trying to decide what her deal is.

“Were you late, too?” Dan asks, figuring he might as well trying to make an ally now.

“No, I told Bailey I wanted to work in cardiology and she told me that I’m a bottom dweller and I don’t get to make requests.” Her face is pinched and annoyed, and it makes Dan chuckle a little.

“Is that her name? Bailey? I don’t know who any of these doctors are. I’m not from around here.”

“None of us are,” she grouches at him. 

“Nice to know that everyone’s friendly around her,” he grumbles back at her, and it makes the corners of her mouth twitch, but that’s all the reaction she has.

-

The pit, or the A&E, aka the worst and busiest department in the hospital, is teeming with people, and Dan’s immediately overwhelmed. People are shouting for his attention and demanding things from him, and he scurries from bed to bed as quickly as he can. 

Occasionally he can hear Cristina, his A&E companion, barking at a patient. She’s brisk and a bit impolite, and Dan instantly likes her. When a drunk guy stumbles in with an abrasion on his arm, he asks her what type of Asian she is and Dan’s afraid that she’s going to punch him in the face, but she just replies that it’s not information imperative to his healthcare and thankfully he shuts up.

They work non-stop for three hours solid, spinning in the same circles until they are finally relieved for lunch. Both leave as soon as they are told they can, walking as fast as their tired feet can carry them to the cafeteria. 

It’s cold and smells of old food, but Dan’s finally able to get a cup of coffee and something other than toast in his stomach. He’s been too busy to focus on his hangover, but the moment he has a second to rest, it all comes rushing back.

“Why did I decide I wanted to be a surgeon? Like, what kind of sadist does that to themselves?” he whines as he takes a bite of the mushy turkey sandwich he picked.

“Cause surgeons are the only type of doctors that matter,” Cristina answers, slurping a bite of soup into her mouth.

“Other doctors are valuable, too.”

They both look up at the people sitting down at their table. The person who spoke was one of the guys from rounds this morning, and Dan vaguely recognizes him, but has no idea who the other two people are.

“We weren’t looking for company or wrong opinions.” Cristina doesn’t bother looking back up, just goes back to her soup and the book about cardiology she’s had her nose in since they sat down.

“Well, you got it anyway!” He’s a bit too chipper, but Dan figures that’s okay. At least someone around here has a good attitude.

“Dan,” he introduces himself, giving a two finger salute instead of trying to shake hands.

“I’m George,” he said waving jovially at them. “This is Eve and Charlie.” He gestures to the other two and they both give a small wave, tucking into their food.

“How’s the pit?” George asks, not privy to the fact that Dan just wants to eat in silence.

“It’s the pit, it’s the shit hole of the hospital.” 

He doesn’t seem to bothered by Cristina’s grouchiness, just starts talking about his rounds in peds and how it’s actually really nice. 

“I’m doing cardiology and I’m bored out of my mind,” Eve says and Cristina instantly snaps her head up, probably pulling something in the process.

“ _You_ got cardiology! That’s so unfair!”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t mouth off first thing this morning.”

Dan can’t hide the snigger that leaves him, and Cristina glares at him before going back to her book.

-

“Okay, so do you know about how long you’ve been having these headaches? Is there anything that could have happened to trigger it?”

Dan stands over his patient’s bed and goes through the common questions for headaches. Why someone would come to A&E for a headache is beyond him, but he’s not about to say that, and certainly not to his patient.

“Uh, probably a few months. They keep getting worse and worse. Like, I can’t even sleep.” That seems to be pretty obvious, given the bags under the man’s eyes, and Dan notes that in the chart. 

“Okay, I will go consult with the Neurologist and see what he thinks would be the best course of action.”

Dan walks away, jotting a few more things down, and navigates to the Nurses’ station. “Do you know where I can find...” he looks at the list on his badge that has the hospital's specialists on it, “Dr. Lester?”

“I don’t, but he’s usually pretty quick to respond if you page him. Here’s the number.”

He thanks them and punches the number into his pager, hoping for a quick response, and moves on to his other patients waiting for him.

-

Dan’s stitching up a cut when he hears a voice that’s just familiar enough that Dan can’t place where he’s heard it before. He glances up to see who the voice belongs to, and he can feel all the color drain from his face.

“Ow! You’re pulling too hard!” 

He glances down to where he’s two stitches away from being done and is, indeed, pulling on the thread too hard.

“Shit, sorry,” he mumbles, trying to finish quickly. Maybe he can dip out without being seen if he’s sneaky.

The man from last night, the man that woke up in Dan’s bed that he promptly ditched this morning, is standing in the pit, talking to the nurse. This is the worst case scenario possible after a one night stand, and leave it to Dan to sleep with someone who works at the same bleeding hospital as him.

He finishes his work and lets them know the nurse will be by with his discharge information, and he does his best to stand up quietly, but God must really hate him, because the tray he’s been using knocks to the ground in an almighty ‘ _crash!_ and he’s stood there with medical tools scattered on the ground and the stranger’s eyes trained on him.

“Well, hello there,” he says, moving forward to help Dan clean up the mess. “I had no idea that this was where your first day was!”

“Uh, yeah. I didn’t know you worked here, either,” Dan mumbles to the floor. 

“What a great coincidence!”

Dan gives him a look, because why is he so excited to see him? Also, why is he so damn cute? It’s an actual problem, but he doesn’t have time to lament over his bad decisions.

“Sure. Sorry, I hate to run, but I need to find Dr. Lester, I need to discuss a patient with him.”

They stand, the mess finally cleaned up, but the man is smiling all big and excited, and it makes something anxious churn in Dan’s stomach.

“What a small world!” He puts his hand out for Dan to shake. “I’m Dr. Lester! You can call me Phil, though, since we’re already pretty acquainted.”

‘ _Fuck_ , Dan thinks.

-

Having to work in the same building with the person you slept with in a drunken moment of weakness is bad enough, but having to work together on a case is Dan’s actual definition of hell. 

Plus, Phil is all bubbly and happy, and it makes Dan want to puke a little. Who is this chipper when they work in a damn hospital?

“I think we should start with a CT scan, and work from there. You can put the orders in, and you can assist on the case.”

Part of Dan, the embarrassed, hungover part, wants to pass. But this is his job, and he actually _is_ really interested in Neurology. It’s like some cruel joke the universe is playing on him.

He starts loading his patient up and Cristina accosts him before he can leave.

“You slept with Dr. Lester?” She doesn’t bother being quiet, and Dan wants to cover her mouth desperately. Probably would if he wasn’t busy untangling all the stupid wires covering every surface of the bed.

“Would you shut up, please?” he hisses, trying to keep his voice low. “I would rather people didn’t know about that.”

Cristina gives him the kind of look that reminds Dan of his mum and he looks away. It’s a weird combination of disappointment and annoyance. 

“I didn’t know he was a doctor, let alone a doctor here.”

She snorts and pats him, not too gently, on the back. “You’re a moron. I can’t wait to watch this unfold.”

“Oh, shut up and help me untangle this damn thing!”

She does, because although she’s a bit crass and blunt, she seems to be a decent person if you can get past how mean she is.

-

Phil is waiting in the CT room and Dan almost wheels the patient back out of the room upon seeing him. He gives Dan another one of those stupid grins, and rushes forward to help him.

They get the patient on the bed and let the tech run the machine, both taking shelter from the radiation in the little alcove so they can see the results.

“I didn’t know you worked here.”

Phil chuckles a little. “Yeah, I kind of gathered that. I’m kind of glad, though. I have a feeling I wouldn’t have seen you again if you had it your way.”

Dan squints at him, still not sure what exactly his deal is. “You know, I’m not looking for anything. Like, I’m super busy right now and I just don’t have any time for anything more than what happened last night. And even then,” he shrugs, “I don’t have much time for that, either.”

“But you enjoyed yourself, right?” At least he has the decency to not look _too_ smug.

He mumbles his response, some garbled reply of “yeah, but so.” Phil doesn’t ask anything else, but he’s got a stupid smirk on his face that Dan wants to wipe off. And maybe there is a tiny bit of him that wants to wipe it off with his lips pressed against his unfairly attractive face.

-

The patient, it turns out, has a tumor. Dan feels terrible for thinking that it was nothing more than a headache, and resolves to not be such a dick, even in his head. 

Phil schedules a surgery for removal and tells Dan he is going to assist, since it’s his patient. He can’t even protest before it’s written on the board for all the surgery interns to see, and before he can even think of how much shit he’s going to get, Cristina is corning him in the supply closet he’s decided to hide in for a few minutes.

“It’s day one and you already get to assist on a surgery! What the hell?”

“I didn’t ask to assist!” Dan protests, letting all the stress from the day leak into his voice.

“You’re so lucky. Maybe I should sleep with the cardiologist. I’m not really into guys, but if it gets me on a surgery…” 

He punches her in the arm, not even feeling too bad as she winces and grabs her arm. “Don’t be a dick. I told you I didn’t know he worked here.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I _know,_ I’m just saying.”

“Well, shut up about it. I don’t want people to know and for them to think I’m just sleeping my way into the surgical suite.”

He doesn’t wait for her reply, he just opens the door to go back to work.

-

Turns out, word travels fast in a hospital, and within an hour of Dan’s name being added to the surgical board, he’s already being whispered about any time he enters a room. He holds his head high and tries not to hear the way people are gossiping about him because it isn’t the first time he’s been talked about, and it won't be the last. 

Eve, Charlie, and George all accost him an hour before the surgery, all griping about how they want on a surgery, too. Cristina tells them off, but it’s to no avail. Apparently Dan’s got a pack of people now who don’t understand what ‘silence is golden’ means.

“I heard you slept with Lester and that’s why you’re getting a surgery,” Charlie says, not bothering to keep the disdain out his voice.

“If you’re gonna be an asshole, you don’t have to hang out with us,” Cristina snaps at him before Dan has the chance, and he’s eternally grateful for her in that moment. 

“I don’t think that’s why,” George says, picking at the threads of his scrubs. “It was your patient, right? You deserve to assist if it was.”

Dan doesn’t do more than nod, and he’s suddenly very fond of this sweet goofball. 

“Whatever,” Charlie shrugs and Dan makes a mental note to try and stay away from him.

-

Surgery is incredible and Dan’s adrenaline is coursing the entire time. He doesn’t get to do much more than watch and do the stitches afterwards, but it still causes a little buzz in the back of his head. This is what he wants to be doing. This is where he’s meant to be.

Phil is an incredible surgeon, it turns out. He keeps up a steady train of information going the entire time, Dan doing his best to soak up all the knowledge he can. Regardless of his and Phil’s personal relationship, he can recognize that he’s intelligent and talented. It makes it hard to keep up the wall Dan is desperately trying to build.

When they’re all finished and the patient is set up in recovery, Dan trudges back to the pit for the last hour of his shift. He’s exhausted and ready for bed, maybe a little hair of the dog, but he’s got people waiting for him, and that’s enough to keep him going.

-

Cristina is looking over a chart when he finally makes it back in. She looks grumpy, but it’s almost kind of comforting; she’s always grumpy.

“How was surgery with your lover?”

“Don’t call him that,” Dan groans, rifling through the charts waiting for him.

“What would you prefer I call him?”

“Uh, I don’t know, Dr. Lester?”

“Yes?” God, of course Phil would just pop up out of nowhere. “You said my name?”

“Oh, we were just wondering if you wanted to join us for a drink after our shift ends,” Cristina says, using the fakest voice Dan had ever heard. He shoots daggers at her with his eyes, but she looks at Phil instead, putting on a smile that makes her face look almost like it’s painful. She must not smile a lot.

“Oh, that sounds great!”

Dan wants nothing more to run away, so he does just that, grabbing the first chart on his pile.

“Okay, well, I gotta go! Lives to save!” he sings, sprinting to the beds waiting.

His patient is an older man who says he has pain in his rectum, and Dan kind of wants to die a little.

-

After the longest 24 hours of his entire life, his shift is over. He almost wants to cry, but he knows that would be stupid and unnecessary, so he just changes out of his scrubs and puts his jeans and t-shirt back on. 

“You’re not bailing on drinks, I hope you know that.” Freaking Cristina. 

“I’m an adult, I don’t have to go out for drinks if I don’t want to.” 

“Don’t be a baby. You’re going, Howell.”

“‘You’re going, Howell! Blah, blah, blah.’” He’s lucky she doesn’t hit him, though she does reach out, but he’s _just_ quick enough to dodge it.

“C’mon, Dan, it’ll be fun!” George trips over his pants in the process of pulling them on, and Dan has to turn away to not laugh out loud like everyone else does.

“Fine! You guys are the worst.”

-

Dan’s a rum and coke down and is working on his second when Phil slips into the conveniently empty stool beside him. He’s gonna murder Cristina for leaving him alone - what he specifically asked her not to do.

“How was your first day?” Phil asks, sipping on his own rum and coke.

Dan shrugs. “Good, I guess. Busy.”

“Mmm. Busy is good, though, means you’re saving lives.”

“Yeah.”

“So, are we gonna do this thing?”

“What thing is that?” Dan asks, snorting.

“Like the, you-and-I thing.” He gestures between them.

Dan rolls his eyes. “That’s not gonna be a thing.”

Phil smirks, and despite Dan telling himself not to care, he still feels something warm growing in the pit of his stomach.

“Okay, if that’s what you think.” He shrugs and takes a sip of his drink, and Dan wants to shove him against the wall and kiss that stupid smile off his face, but he doesn’t. 

Instead, he drinks his drink and moves to sit with Cristina and George and determinedly looks in the opposite direction of Phil. And if he occasionally slips up and stares when no one is looking, well then, no one has to know.

**Author's Note:**

> like/reblog on [tumblr](http://tobieallison.tumblr.com/post/183999138451/the-anatomy-of-us) and view on [twitter](https://twitter.com/ta_hens/status/1114699198010540034) if you like :)


End file.
